Artist Statement

William Guion has photographed the landscape and people of his native Louisiana and the South for more than 15 years.

Through his camera’s lens, he explores the quiet presence, or spirit of place revealed in the changing moods of light on the landscape. This is seen most clearly in his ongoing series of images and writings of and about live oak trees. His highly detailed, large-format, black and white photographs of this species of oak indigenous to the Southern Gulf Coast, sensitively capture the tree’s spiritual nature. These images, often made in foggy, misty, settings, portray the oaks elegantly, revealing the mystical as well as the majestic qualities of these elder trees of the Southern landscape. A sampling of this body of work is contained in his first book, Heartwood, meditations on Southern oaks, published by Bulfinch/Little Brown Press.